The extreme polarization of European and American politics is now widely seen as a threat to democracy. But polarization is often misunderstood as simply political divisiveness that can be resolved if only the two sides came together to find common ground. That’s wrong. Polarization isn’t about partisan animosity or a lack of common ground. It’s about a cognitive distortion that happens when we retreat to our in-groups. Polarization ultimately poisons our relations with our own political side, making us intolerant of any disagreement. To battle polarization, then, we need to start with becoming used to disagreeing with our political allies, argued Robert Tallise.

2021 closed on a sour note for American democracy.   Despite electing Joe Biden to the Presidency a year ago, large segments of the population still accept baseless allegations of widespread election fraud.  According to one recent poll, more than 40% of Americans doubt that Biden was elected legitimately.  Citing this and other “visible deteriorations” of democratic norms, the International IDEA Global State of Democracy Report now classifies the United States a “backsliding democracy.”  But according to Kevin Casas-Zamora, International IDEA’s secretary general, the “most concerning” aspect of US politics is “runaway polarization.”